It's been four years since a Hot Springs man first spotted what he believed was an Ivory Billed Woodpecker near Brinkley. It was a sighting that would spark a huge search that to this day is still going ongoing. So this leaves the question, where does the search stand now and just how much is it costing taxpayers?

The Ivory Billed Woodpecker was believed to be extinct for about 60 years. So imagine the surprise of bird lovers when they started getting word of credible sightings in Arkansas. The question now....are the elusive birds really alive,and if so where ?

Questions that are costing thousands of dollars to answer, but for those holding hope that the bird will be found alive, to them its worth every dime.

David Luneau, a professor at UALR, spends just about every Friday this time of year out in the woods volunteering his time to look for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. Camera in tow, he took us on a canoe ride in the Cache River Wildlife Refuge to look for the elusive bird.

(David Luneau, UALR professor) "In addition to looking and listening for the bird, I'm listening to the trees as well. When I'm moving along at this speed I'm looking for movement, bird movement and I'm also looking for feeding signs on trees where bark would be peeled away."

And for cavities where Woodpeckers nest and roost.

(Luneau) "Ivory Billed being largest of woodpeckers build the largest cavities. They did their own cavities and we're looking for a cavity prob this big - 4in wide maybe 6-7 inches tall."

Four years ago David was in a canoe searching this same area with a video camera rolling when he says he captured North America's largest woodpecker flying away. That was the one and only time he says he has ever seen the endangered species.

David said it took him months to analyze his video to make sure it was in fact the real deal and not the more common Pileated Woodpecker that looks very similar.

(Luneau) "When I started looking I went out with the attention of getting a picture of it because I knew as rare as this bird is and thought to have been extinct for 60 years just reporting you had seen one was just MOSTLY going to bring a lot of ridicule and skepticism so we needed a picture of it."

 (Luneau) "It was a sense of relief. a sense of gladness that we did have a piece of hard evidence but it wasn't the piece of evidence for me anyway that let me know Ivory Billed Woodpeckers were there. even before I got the video there had already been about a half dozen sightings."

Many believe David's video is proof the Ivory Billed is still alive, but some skeptics don't buy it. Regardless, the massive effort to find the bird continues and in late January search teams began using a new tool in their efforts, a helicopter.


(Mattew Conner, White River Nat. Wildlife Refuge) "We're flying on different transects in different search areas hoping to flush the bird up so we can get a picture of it as well as a better location of where we can do ground searches in the future."
 
The search area is enormous. Dozens of crews have been scouring about three hundred thousand acres here in the big woods of arkansas looking for the elusive bird for the past four years. But since 2004 no one has been able to get a picture of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker.
 
(Martjan Lammertink, Cornell Ornithologist) "It's such an important bird, such a distinct large woodpecker that any chance we can get to help recover this bird we should work at."

But at what expense. We wanted to know just how much it's costing taxpayers to search for a bird that some don't believe is still alive. And we found out the search and recovery effort in several states across the southeast is costing millions. The helicopter search alone has cost thousands and it's just a small portion of the expense.
 
(Laurie Finwood, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) "The taxpayers are paying about $140,000 for helicopter searches that are happening in several historic states. In Arkansas the helicopter search has cost about $30,000 in federal money."

Take a look at how much federal money the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has received since 2005 in recovery funds for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. $4.5 million in 2005, and about 1.1 million in 2006, and again in 2007 and 2008. That money was used for searches, habitat research, education, drafting the recovery plan and outreach. 3 million of the 2005 funds were spent on bottomland hardwood restoration projects and a figure of 27 million dollars has also been talked about.

(Finwood) "It's the sum total of the full menu of activities that the recovery team members put together for the implementation schedule in the recovery plan, in other words, that's all the activities that could possibly be done to start on recovery covering about a five year period."

And some of those activities depend on getting additional evidence of where the bird is living or finding an active nest.

(Finwood) "We're not ready to ask for that kind of money and we haven't spent that kind of money. now what we have done though just to inform people is the implementation schedule calls for 11 million dollars to spend on habitat conservation and the activities associated with habitat conversation. "

Over 3 years about 3.3 million has been spent on adding acreage to the Cashe River National Wildlife Refuge. And the state of Arkansas was awarded a 1 million dollar grant to purchase land in the big woods area. All in effort to restore the bottomland hardwoods where the Ivory Billed is believed to be living near. Plus it will also help numerous other species.
 
(Finwood) "Every expenditure of taxpayer dollars deserves to be scrutinized. Personally I think it's incredibly important that we not waste any money. We are not wasting any money on this. We are actually spending time that really has started up an amazing conservation effort in arkansas and in other states because of this icon bird. And we disagree with the skeptics who say the evidence is not there. We think there is an amazing amount evidence."

Evidence that has helped put Brinkley, Arkansas on the map and has helped businesses like Gene's barbecue.
 
(Gene Depriest, Owner Gene's BBQ) "It really had an impact when they first discovered it. And business is still great. My business improved 25% the first time."

Gene's business has weaned off some from the initial excitement four years ago, but he is still capitalizing on it with the Ivory Billed cheeseburger, salad and dessert on the menu.
So while locals and searchers from around the world hold out hope the iconic bird will be found alive, they consider this a second chance to save a woodpecker that was believed to be extinct for so many decades.

(Catherine Rideout, AR Game & Fish Commission) "For people who live in Arkansas the Ivory Billed Woodpecker represents this icon of the bottomland hardwood swamp." 

(Conner) "It just gives hope, gives us hope in as far as looking at other species that have been lost, that we weren't able to do something for. This one we might have the chance for it to come back and make sure it's here to stay."

And a $10,000 reward is being offered for information that leads biologist from the nature conservance or the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to a live Ivory Billed Woodpecker, its nest, roost cavity or feeding site in Arkansas. We've linked that information which includes a description of the bird to KATV.